Eviction Blockades

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Eviction Blockades

Dear friends,
    City Life maintains a list of families in foreclosed buildings who we will defend, if necessary, by eviction blockades. Several families are on our eviction blockade list at this time. We hope that a blockade won't be necessary.
    One good reason there have been no recent blockades is that the Banks are backing down in the face of pressure. Two weeks ago we began to organize a blockade for Mr. Freeman. This gentleman has lived all his life in his home in Grove Hall. He takes care of his disabled uncle and mom and his 3-year old daughter. He started a juice bar for area teens to visit, a safe place to go without alcohol or drugs. Faced with the possibility of an eviction blockade, Wells Fargo backed off. There are negotiations now to enable Mr. Freeman to repurchase his home at its real value (half loan value).
    Three times (out of 15 organized blockades), the banks have succeeded in evicting our members. But even those evictions have turned into movement victories for us. Paula Taylor's eviction on September 5, 2008, has helped launch a growing movement against Bank of America. On March 22, Paula Taylor was a featured interview on Dateline NBC exposing bank practices.

Steve Meacham

City Life/Vida Urbana Director of Tenant Organizing

[submitted by Stewart L.]

1 comment:

AnonymousDecember 16, 2009 at 2:52 PM
How can I get an eviction blockage. I have a lawer who is trying to get the bank to void the foreclose since they foreclosed while I was in the middle of a trial period plan.
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Bank Tenant Association-- A Strategy to Stop the Tide of Evictions

Boston experienced 1200+ foreclosures last year. That’s about 2400 households, or 4-5000 people, faced with forcible eviction from their homes after foreclosure. Such a number of people losing their homes would elicit international sympathy if caused by a natural disaster. This disaster, however, is human-made and should elicit our outrage.

The richest and most powerful institutions in the country used their control of the market to try to get even richer at the expense of the majority. They didn’t just offer millions of individual bad loans, especially directed at communities of color. They created a speculative real estate bubble. Dean Baker of the Center for Economic Policy and Research has noted that real estate values historically tracked incomes until about 10 years ago. The financial institutions fueled a bubble upon which their profits depended. This forced people to pay inflated prices, by definition too high for their real income.

For us to point out the profound inequalities of class, race and gender that characterize this crisis, for us to refer to it as “an attack,” is simply to state the obvious.

The Bank Tenant Association is composed of occupants of foreclosed buildings, both former owners and tenants. We stress that, after foreclosure, everyone is a tenant of the bank. It also includes some people not yet foreclosed who feel that foreclosure is imminent.

Working with Legal Services folks, City Life organized the Bank Tenant Association in the summer of 2007 to organize against foreclosure evictions. Since then we have stopped 95% of the evictions that have come to us. We are working with hundreds of households. Large move-out settlements have been won. Banks have backed down and accepted rent.

In increasing numbers of cases, banks are even selling properties to occupants at the real appraised value, perhaps half the old loan value. This “cramdown” of principle is almost unachievable by normal loan modification efforts. It has been made possible by a committed and growing movement of Bank tenants, willing to engage in dramatic protests, including civil disobedience, alongside more standard legal defense.

Values

City Life/Vida Urbana identifies and fights the root causes of the injustices in our society which often stem from the contradictions between corporate control of the economy and human needs, human rights and community. Because we work with the strong conviction that people should come before corporate profit we promote the principles of radical organizing and radical empowerment. We are building a democratically run organization that is multiracial, multicultural, multilingual and welcoming sexual diversity.

City Life/ Vida Urbana - People before Profit

Tuesday, April 7, 2009